


Born to Fly

by eerian_sadow



Series: Avalon [69]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-11-18
Updated: 2008-11-20
Packaged: 2018-09-21 14:45:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9553277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/pseuds/eerian_sadow
Summary: They could teach Shatter everything he needed to know, except the most important thing to a Seeker.  Nothing in their lives had ever prepared Bluestreak and Sunstreaker for having to teach a flier to get off the ground.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this takes place way in the future of the Avalonverse, long after Jazz's death and Blue and Sunny's subsequent transfer back to Earth, but before Sunstreaker is carrying their offspring's spark.

_I can teach him so many things,_ Bluestreak thought as he looked at Shatter’s recharging form. _How to write, how to speak, how to use his internal comm, how to shoot a rifle. But I can’t teach him what he needs to know the most._

“Blue?” Sunstreaker walked up behind him and wrapped an arm around his waist. “What’s wrong?”

“Shatter.” Bluestreak turned away from the Seeker’s door, taking Sunny with him. He didn’t want to disturb the young mech’s rest. “Haven’t you seen him looking at the sky?”

“Blue, I look at the sky. Doesn’t mean something’s wrong.”

“You don’t fly.”

“Slag. I hadn’t thought about that.” The artist glanced over his shoulder toward Shatter’s recharge room. “Is that what’s bothering him?”

“He’s depressed,” Bluestreak answered. “Emdee thinks it’s because he can’t fly—and he should have known how since he was old enough to learn to walk.”

“Almost since he was sparked, then? Primus.” Even if Sunstreaker’s face didn’t show it, Bluestreak could feel his mate’s concern across their bond.

“The Aerialbots won’t teach him,” the sniper continued. “I asked, and Silverbolt was okay with it, but the others still treat him like a Decepticon. Silver even offered to give him private lessons, Air Raid and Slingshot freaked when they found out.”

“What about Swoop? He likes Shatter.” Sunny pulled his mate down onto Jazz’s music couch with him.

“All the Dinobots like Shatter,” Bluestreak agreed. “Though I don’t know why. And I asked Swoop already, too, but he uses a different kind of flight system. He said he doesn’t really know how Shatter’s system works, and so he couldn’t teach him.”

“Be like using watercolor techniques with oils,” Sunstreaker agreed.

Despite the serious topic of discussion, Bluestreak smiled. He loved seeing the more civilian side of his mate. “Yeah.”

“What about…never mind. He’s gone.” The light tone the yellow Twin’s voice had carried disappeared.

“Yeah, I know. I keep doing that, too.”

“So what do we do, then? We don’t really have any options left. Its not like Optimus can order the Aerialbots to teach him.”

“I don’t know. But we’ve got to figure something out soon.”

Blue let Sunny pull him against his chest, taking what comfort he could from his mate’s embrace.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Shatter was the first to say that he wasn’t an artist, but he did love Sunstreaker’s crayons. He loved them so much that Sunny had taken to leaving uncolored sketches laying around so that his adopted sparkling could use the crayons to his heart’s content.

It was the only thing that seemed to make the Seeker happy anymore.

Bluestreak found Shatter coloring one of Sunstreaker’s sketches almost every morning before class. The young mech’s posture was always slumped, looking almost defeated, and he was always focused on his work.

And his back was always to the windows.

“How are you, Shatter?” The sniper asked, setting an energon ration down in front of his adopted sparkling.

“Fine.” The Seeker picked his energon up and took a drink absently. “You don’t have to ask me that every day, Blue.”

Shatter’s words were so soft that Bluestreak had trouble picking them out of the interference his vocal filter created to keep their optics intact. “I know. I just worry about you.”

“You don’t have to worry about me!” Shatter’s filter almost couldn’t keep up with the shouted words and Bluestreak felt his optic glass vibrate ominously. The Seeker sparkling immediately looked ashamed. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” He knew it wasn’t—not really—but he didn’t have a way to fix the problem. He wouldn’t take that out on Shatter. “Come find me when you’re ready to go to class.”

“You don’t have to walk me anymore.” Shatter’s voice had gotten small again.

“I’ll stop if you want me to,” Blue replied.

His sparkling turned to look at him, optics full of sadness—and something else he couldn’t describe. “I didn’t mean it that way. I just…you don’t have to, if you have other things to do.”

The sniper knelt down and pulled the Seeker into a hug. “Nothing that I need to do is more important than you.”

“You promise?”

Bluestreak was reminded of a thousand similar exchanges between himself and Prowl. Prowl had always managed to deliver on that kind of promise. “I promise.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Blue agonized over his options for helping Shatter—or lack of—for the next several days. Skyfire would have been the prefect teacher, had anyone been able to find him. Other mechs had thrown the accusation at Bluestreak numerous times, but Skyfire was the only real deserter he knew of.

And honestly, no one could blame him for never being able to adapt to the war.

The thought left him precisely nowhere, though, because he wasn’t going to ask for Silverbolt’s help and cause a rift between the Aerialbots. Swoop was willing to try, but he and Bluestreak were both worried that incorrect teaching could do more harm that good. Springer and Blades had helicopter alt modes so they were beyond unable to help them.

And there was no way in the Pit he was going to ask the Decepticons.

Sunstreaker did what he could to ease his worries, but it didn’t help much when he was feeling the exact same way. He was on Cybertron more often than Bluestreak, and when he was there he canvassed the Neutral camps trying to find any fliers that might be willing to take on a student. He found a lot of dead ends, but he tried.

It was while Bluestreak was on an extraction mission near one of the lost colonies—which had obviously been found since the war had moved into space—that he stumbled onto a possible solution to his problem.

He could ask _Soundwave_.

Soundwave was a Decepticon, yes, but Jazz had always trusted him. After a few years on Cybertron, Bluestreak learned that there wasn’t anything Jazz wouldn’t have trusted his old friend—including Prowl and their sparkling. Even if he said that his symbiotes couldn’t help, Blue was certain that Soundwave would at least hear him out and possibly point him in a direction that hadn’t been considered before.

The hard part would be getting in touch with him and apologizing after the way he had acted when Jazz had died.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Galvatron took the matter out of his hands with an unexpected assault on the Earth base.

The battle was harsh, even by the insane Decepticon leader’s standards. Galvatron had obviously told his troops to shoot to kill this time. Unable to do much else to defend their homes and families, the Autobots and their human allies were doing the same. Fallen soldiers littered the ground in various stages of death.

As a result, while he was trying to dodge the Stunticons, Bluestreak literally tripped over one of the mechs he had spent the entire battle looking for.

He had a moment’s hesitation as he looked into Ravage’s pained optics. Soundwave was not his friend, no matter how close he may have been to Jazz. And treating the cassettecon would actually be an act of treason unless he took him captive as well.

But it would put him in contact with Soundwave and that was what he needed.

He pulled his first aid kit from subspace. Ravage’s wounds were bad, but he had treated worse and the ‘Bot had lived. Ravage growled when he started to work, but they both knew he wouldn’t be able to fight back.

“Hush, Ravage. I’m trying to help you.” His fingers moved with sureness as he worked. “You would have let Jazz help, wouldn’t you?”

He should have known that it was a bad idea to stop and help Ravage when he had been trying to avoid the Stunticons, but Bluestreak was too absorbed in trying to help Shatter to have really thought about it.

“I’d heard you were a traitor,” Motormaster said, pressing a pistol to the back of the sniper’s head. “But I didn’t really believe it. Wonder what’ll happen if I kill you.”

“Sunstreaker will kick your ass,” Blue replied, sounding more confident than he felt. Getting killed like this would mean that he had failed Shatter completely.

“Not scary,” the Stunticon leader replied.

Bluestreak offlined his optics as he heard Motormaster’s pistol charge up for the shot that would probably kill him. He was suddenly plagued by regrets he didn’t even know he had and wondered if this was what the human meant by having your life flash before you.

“Nothing to say, Autobot? That’s not like you. I’m almost disappointed.”

The sniper heard the whine that indicated Motormaster had fired, but he didn’t feel the pain that should have accompanied the hit. He onlined his optics again when he realized he couldn’t fell the pistol against his head anymore.

Soundwave was kneeling on the ground next to Ravage with his own pistol in his hand. Motormaster was on the ground to Bluestreak’s left, a single hole burned into his chest plates.

The sniper met the communications officer’s gaze with a mix of relief and nervousness. “Thank you.”

Soundwave nodded.

His next words were hesitant. “I…need to talk to you.”

The Decepticon looked down at his cassette for a moment, then back at Blue. He nodded again. “After the battle. Be more careful.”

“Right. Thanks again.” Bluestreak picked up his rifle and charged back into the battle, knowing his moment with the Decepticon communications officer had passed.


	2. Chapter 2

Soundwave came after dark. Had they been on base, it would have been a problem; security was tight at Metroplex since the city had been rebuilt.

He appeared in the sitting room like he had been summoned by magic. Sunstreaker was drawing and aiming his pistol while Bluestreak was still recovering from his surprise. Soundwave’s hands remained empty, though his cassettes all responded in kind.

The tension in the room could have been cut with Shatter’s training weapons. Blue had a moment’s regret when he realized that he had not let Sunny in on his plan to contact Soundwave about Shatter’s problem.

“Its okay, Sunny,” he said softly. “I asked him to come. But I expected him to knock.”

Soundwave took the pointed statement for what it was and gestured for his cassettes to lower their weapons. Rumble and Frenzy hesitated briefly, but Laserbeak and Buzzsaw immediately took up perches on the furniture and Ravage sat down at Soundwave’s feet.

“Can I get you some energon?” Blue asked. He had put Soundwave in serious danger from both factions by asking him to meet; the least he could do was be a good host. And he knew the Decepticons’ supplies were always low.

Soundwave nodded. “Appreciated.”

“I’ll get it,” Sunstreaker said. The yellow Twin’s tone said very clearly that they would be talking very seriously later.

Bluestreak waited for his mate to leave the room before he said anything else. He wanted to apologize to Soundwave in as much privacy as he could. “I know you were close to Jazz, and that’s why I’m trusting you now. I’m hoping that you’ll at least hear me out before you tell me to go get slagged or whatever.”

Soundwave replied by taking a seat at Shatter’s study table. His gaze settled on the sniper as he waited for the younger mech to continue.

Blue was immensely relieved. Despite what he had told himself, he hadn’t known if Soundwave would really listen to him or not. “I was awful to you after Jazz died. I…I couldn’t see past my own grief and I took it out on you. You were in charge of that outpost and I know that you couldn’t have stopped the others without raising suspicions about your loyalty. It took me a while to see that I had been wrong about you, though. I’m sorry that I treated you so badly.”

The Decepticon gazed at him for a long moment. Bluestreak wished he could see through Soundwave’s visor, so that he would have some clue to what was going through the other mech’s processor.

“Apology accepted.” The reply took so long to come that Bluestreak was actually surprised by it. “You did not ask to meet just for that.”

“No.”

Sunstreaker chose that moment to bring the energon into the room and pass it out. Soundwave couldn’t hide his obvious surprise when the artist set cubes in front of the cassettes as well. Blue smiled at his mate’s thoughtfulness; Sunny often surprised him with little gestures like that.

“I need your help,” Bluestreak said once everyone was settled.

Soundwave listened silently as the sniper explained his problem. When Blue was finished speaking, he nodded. “Laserbeak had the same problem. If he is willing to teach Shatter, we can help you.”

“Oh thank you!” Even as he thought his spark might burst from sheer joy, Bluestreak could feel Sunstreaker’s suspicions at Soundwave’s easy agreement.

He could deal with that to get Shatter the help he needed.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Are we going to tell him in the morning?” Sunstreaker asked as they settled into their recharge berth.

“I think maybe we should wait until he gets out of his classes. I don’t want him to accidentally say something that might get Soundwave into trouble.” Blue was glad that Sunny wasn’t starting of the conversation with hostility; he didn’t want to fight tonight.

“Do you really think we can trust him?” The artist’s worry across their bond belied his calm tone.

The sniper sent assurance back to him. “Yes. Jazz trusted him with everything, even me.”

“High praise.”

“And its making him feel needed. He knows that he’s just surplus equipment to Galvatron.” Blue snuggled against Sunny’s chest plates once the yellow Twin was properly settled. “Jazz said he’s been pretty lost since Megatron and Shockwave died, so being needed means a lot.”

“If he’s just surplus, why doesn’t he defect?” Sunstreaker wrapped his arms around Bluestreak and held him close.

“Who would speak for him if he tried? He was so highly ranked among the Decepticons for so long that no one would trust him without someone pretty highly ranked to support him.”

“It sounds like he has the head of special operations,” Sunny replied.

Blue was quiet for a moment to process Sunstreaker’s words. Would he speak for Soundwave if the communications officer did defect? “You’re right. I would speak for him.”

“Exactly. Now, why didn’t you tell me your plan? I would have liked to be prepared when Soundwave broke into out house.”

“I meant to,” Bluestreak said sheepishly. “But they attacked while I was in debriefing and I didn’t get a chance to talk to you until after the battle. And then Shatter was so upset that I forgot. Forgive me?”

“Since it turned out well, I suppose.” Sunstreaker kissed the top of his mate’s head. “Just make sure you warn me the next time one of your ideas involves a Decepticon.”

“Will do,” Blue replied. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

When they told Shatter he would finally be getting flying lessons, it was all Bluestreak could do not to laugh at the young Seeker’s dumbfounded expression.

“We’ve been trying to find someone to teach you for months,” Sunstreaker said, distracting Blue’s attention.

“I’m really going to learn to fly?” he asked, joy and hope beginning to fill his expression. “You’re really going to let me?”

“Shatter, you should have been flying before we ever met you,” Bluestreak said gently. “Of course we’re going to let you learn. It's what you were made to do.”

“I was made to be a weapon,” the younger mech said sadly, all trace of happiness disappearing. “My creators didn’t care about anything else.”

“They must have cared at least a little, because they gave you some beautiful wings,” Sunny told him.

“Only because it would make me more effective.” Shatter had gone from sad to downright sullen.

“Now you’re just being stubborn,” Blue said. “You were built to fly, and you were programmed with that as your primary purpose. And starting tomorrow you’re going to be having flying lessons.”

Shatter nodded. They had learned from hard experience that the Seeker could never out argue the sniper, so he didn’t even try any more.

“And we love you,” Bluestreak added with a gentle smile.

The Seeker nodded again. “I know. Can I go now? I have to do some research for my biology class tomorrow.”

The sniper sighed, knowing that nothing would bring Shatter out of his funk any time soon. Emdee seemed to be the only ‘Bot capable of that; he would see if she could come over tomorrow to visit.

“Go ahead,” Sunstreaker said. After the younger mech was gone, he pulled Blue into a one-armed embrace. “Don’t worry about his attitude too much. I was the same way when I was his age. I never wanted to let go of the things that had hurt me the most.”

“You think he’ll get over it?” Bluestreak was genuinely worried for their sparkling.

“I know he will. He’s got the best psychologist in the galaxy working with him.” Sunny gave his mate a gentle kiss. “And he’ll be better once he gets to the sky.”

“I hope so.”

“I know so. Now, go call Emdee like I can tell you want to. See if she wants to come over for energon or something tomorrow.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

One of the biggest perks to owning property that was nowhere near the base was that they didn’t have to get permission whenever they wanted to go out and do something. No one asked what they were doing when they left early in the evening and no one but their neighbors wanted to know if they would be back late; Shatter’s Human friend Emily loved any excuse to come into their house and feed his fish.

They drove off under a cloudless sky, which was a promising sight. Shatter could barely contain his nervous excitement as he settled into his carry trailer; they were all looking forward to the Seeker being able to transport himself over long distances in the near future. Emily waved an excited goodbye as they pulled away.

Soundwave met them near an abandoned power plant almost a hundred miles away. It was dark by the time they arrived, but it was too dangerous to have the Decepticons out in daylight. Laserbeak and Buzzsaw both looked as excited as Shatter at the upcoming lesson.

“Are you ready?” Soundwave asked as the young Seeker climbed out of the trailer.

Shatter nodded.

Laserbeak took that as his cue and flew over to Shatter as Sunstreaker transformed and unhooked the trailer from Bluestreak. He was leading the younger mech away from the group as Bluestreak transformed as well.

“Will they be okay?” Blue asked. “I mean, is it a good idea to let them go off alone like that?

“Blue, they’re going to go _flying_ ,” Sunny replied. “I don’t think a few feet are going to matter.”

“Laserbeak wants no distractions,” Soundwave added.

“Oh. Okay.” Bluestreak reached out and took Sunstreaker’s hand. The yellow Twin squeezed it gently.

“It’ll be all right.”

The sniper nodded and tried to relax so he could watch Shatter’s progress. He wondered if all parents felt so nervous when their sparklings were about to take such big steps in their lives.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Shatter fell. Often. Sometimes he would misinterpret Laserbeak’s instructions and sometimes it would be because of his own fallibility, but it still hurt when the young Seeker landed. After a while, even Sunstreaker was wincing in sympathetic pain when Shatter hit the ground.

Every time he fell, though, Shatter got back up and tried again.

Dawn was just peeking over the horizon and Soundwave was beginning to look like he was going to call Laserbeak back in so they could go back to their base when the Seeker made one last, determined try. As the young mech made a running leap into the air, transforming into the alt mode he had chosen years ago when they transferred to Earth, Bluestreak recognized the expression on Shatter’s face.

He was determined to fly this time, even if it put him in medbay for a week.

Laserbeak flew alongside the Seeker for a few minutes, doubtlessly giving him more instructions now that he was actually in the air. Bluestreak watched with trepidation and excitement as the young mech soared. Sunstreaker watched, stoic on the outside and with excitement buzzing along their bond. Even Soundwave’s body language conveyed happiness and excitement with the event.

The rising sun glinted on Shatter’s purple and indigo wings, highlighting him against the fiery colors of the sunrise. Blue could feel Sunny etching the image into his memory to transfer to canvas later; he wished he had brought a holo camera.

His landing was awful. Shatter hadn’t quite finished transforming back into his root mode before he touched down, which resulted in a roll that had been as bad as some of his falls. But he was beaming when he stood up.

“I did it!” The Seeker launched himself at Bluestreak in a victorious hug.

“Yes, you did.” Bluestreak hugged him tightly. “I’m so proud of you.”

Shatter turned from Blue to Sunstreaker. “Sunny did you see? I did it!”

“You looked great, Shatter.” The artist gave his sparkling a smile. “I‘m proud of you too.”

The sniper turned to Soundwave, who was holding his own sparkling. “Thank you for your help. Both of you.”

“You are welcome.” The Decepticon opened his chest compartment so Laserbeak—who had to be exhausted—could settle inside. “We must go.”

“I know,” Blue replied. “Take care of yourself.”

“Affirmative.”

They watched in silence as the Decepticon took to the air. Autobot science had never been able to figure out how they did that, but it was an impressive sight. When Soundwave was gone, Shatter looked at Bluestreak with a tired smile.

“I know I can fly now, but can I ride home in the trailer? I’m really tired.”


End file.
